The five main defendants are accused of founding a crime
syndicate, violating public order, and organizing illegal
protests via social media. They face up to 30 years in prison,
with the government using their social media posts as evidence.
However, the prosecutor has only called for 13-year jail terms
for those suspects, AFP reported.The other 21 suspects could face
between one- and three-year sentences for charges like breaking
the law on public assembly.

Most of the defendants are members of Taksim Solidarity, the
loose group of engineers, architects, doctors, business owners,
and activists who opposed Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's plans
to redevelop Taksim Square, including razing Gezi Park - one of
the last green spaces in central Istanbul - to build a shopping
center.

"We came together as Taksim Solidarity to fulfil our duties
and protect our most basic constitutional rights," architect
Mucella Yapici, who is accused of leading the protests, told a
packed courtroom, denying the charges against her. "You
cannot found a criminal organisation by saying 'I don't want a
shopping mall.’ It is a very ridiculous charge.” Yapici's
daughter Cansu, 27, is also on trial.

In July 2013, the country’s Transportation and Communications
Minister Binali Yildirim called on social networks to
cooperate with authorities in a probe that attempted to
identify and eventually prosecute the organizers of mass
demonstrations. Human rights advocates have decried the current
trial resulting from that probe as a “scandal” and a
“show trial.”

“This is a vindictive, politically motivated show trial
without a shred of evidence of actual crimes. It should be
stopped at the first hearing,” Andrew Gardner, Amnesty
International’s researcher on Turkey, said in a statement on
Thursday.

“The prosecution has concocted a case simply to send a strong
message to the rest of Turkey that the authorities will
ruthlessly pursue anyone who dissents and organizes protests
against government policies.”

Last year’s protests left at least eight people dead and more
than 8,000 injured after a violent crackdown by police, AFP
reported. The toll of seriously hurt could be as much as 10,000,
according to the Turkish Medical Association.

“The Turkish authorities have been relentless in their
crackdown on protesters - be it police violence on the streets or
by prosecuting them through the courts. Meanwhile the police
enjoy near total impunity. The message is clear: peaceful
demonstrations will not be tolerated,” Salil Shetty,
Secretary General of Amnesty International, said in a Tuesday
statement.

Erdogan depicted the protests not as peaceful, but as an
international conspiracy that was part of a coup against his
decade-long rule. The trial indictment said some protesters threw
bottles, rocks, percussion bombs, and Molotov cocktails to repel
police officers trying to clear Gezi Park.

"They have submitted as evidence a picture of me shouting for
help while police fired tear gas in my face," Yapici said in
a speech that drew cheers from those in court. “We started a
resistance which was exemplary to the world, which was very
peaceful.”

"But we faced increasing violence each time we took the
streets. I was gassed from a very short distance and my friends
who were defending me were badly injured after the police
attacked."

Throughout the country there are an estimated 5,500 people on
trial in 95 prosecutions for protests against Erdogan, according
to Turkish rights groups.